To get an elusive up-close view of a great white shark off Cape Cod, photographer Brian Skerry and his team relied on a seal decoy, drones, planes, months of patience, and a lightning-quick finger on the camera shutter. In recent years great white sharks have been showing up annually in the waters off the Cape Cod seashore, and unlike the great whites of Australia or South Africa, these sharks don't respond to the usual underwaterphotographers' techniques. They're not used to humans, so a cage won't work, andthey're interested only in gray seals. So what's a photographer to do? Build a gray seal decoy, fly a drone, and keep trying until you get the shot! Published June 9, 2016.

How I Got the Shot: Photographing Great White Sharks off Cape Cod

To get an elusive up-close view of a great white shark off Cape Cod, photographer Brian Skerry and his team relied on a seal decoy, drones, planes, months of patience, and a lightning-quick finger on the camera shutter. In recent years great white sharks have been showing up annually in the waters off the Cape Cod seashore, and unlike the great whites of Australia or South Africa, these sharks don't respond to the usual underwaterphotographers' techniques. They're not used to humans, so a cage won't work, andthey're interested only in gray seals. So what's a photographer to do? Build a gray seal decoy, fly a drone, and keep trying until you get the shot! Published June 9, 2016.